György Rózsa: Information: from claims to needs (Joint edition published by the Library of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences and the Kultura Hungarian Foreign Trading Company. Budapest, 1988)
II. International relations in the field of scientific information
HOW TO BE AN INTERNATIONAL LIBRARIAN? - Remembering the U.N. Library at Geneva, 1969-1976. Directing the U.N. Library at Geneva (formerly of the League of Nations) has, up till now, been the top library information function any Hungarian librarian has ever filled. The duration of six years has also been the longest. Geneva is central in the European consciousness, experience in its international library is noteworthy even for that reason only. 1 The combination of work and institution has made working there particularly interesting, even beyond personal recollections which authenticate the picture I drew seven years earlier. Personal motives The first title of the present paper was: My good years in Geneva. .. Yet, you may ask, if the years had been that good why did I not stay there and write an account as Chief Librarian at the U.N. and not as that of the Hungarian Academy Library? When I left Hungary for Switzerland in 1969 my then superiors the President and the Secretary General of the Academy released me on unpaid leave with the promise that I had then been working for 9 years as the Academy's librarian having worked previously in the Library-Doc. of the Institute of Economics of the Academy. The formative experience of my working life was my work for the Academy and none of us thought that I should end up elsewhere. 1 fullfilled my obligation when out of two good positions I returned to the original one. I set the timing for my return to coincide with the 150th anniversary of the Academy; I left Hungary on 15 January 1969 and returned there on 15th September 1975. Well, how does a Hungarian librarian become a Genovese internationalist? There are many factors and some go beyond personal qualities and qualifications. These are: regional and national provenance (there are geographical frameworks and other limitations; their prehistory of institutional position, where the vacancy occurs, e.g. how did the previous encumbent cope with his tasks and whether he was a "good diplomat " in relation to various delegations). The choice should be befitting to East-West relations and their balance of influences, and personal traits, including library experience, knowledge of language and some managerial and diplomatic skill. Originally I was designated in 1967 to UNESCO to head their then new Department: DocumentationBibliothèques-Archives (DBA). 2 In 1968 the offer for Geneva came from U.N. New York, via the Hungarian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. I went for an interview in Geneva and shortly afterwards was appointed Chief Librarian.
